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Monthly Archives: December 2012

Let’s face it, if we have been needing to use online systems and services then we have learned to make some adjustments for this. One factor that has come up for me is that I have searched for both readers – always hoping to find those who will actually buy books and short stories etc. that I have written and feel good doing it, as well as finding other people. Finding other writers has also been a relevant matter.

Like everyone, especially extroverts, I also like people. Compared to most extroverts I am really not so much like that, but compared to most genuine introverts I am outgoing and friendly. If you have heard of Meyers Briggs the truth is that in 1989 I tested as extremely introverted but in 1996 after I had the baby I tested out as definitely but only mildly extroverted. Well, there you go.

Now, today, I wanted to tell you about Crime Space. In fact, this blog post may be destined to appear over there. Crime Space is fortunately not for committing crimes online but is actually for fans of crime fiction. If you read mysteries and thrillers and read or watch other crime stories you would probably like it there. This is especially true if you are a fan who would like to connect with the authors of such works. The location is not set up for children but it is great for authors and fans and even publishers to meet and mingle. In that respect it is the closest thing to a live convention that I have found online.

Most of you are aware that this is the blog of a writer. Is that all there is to me? I hope to God/ess not!! Philosophy is a specialty as is fiction writing. In reality, sometimes I also paint. The painting has not earned me money. Writing and philosophy have earned me more than being a part time gardener for wealthy clients in Indianapolis, thanks to Ye Olde Greene Thumb and Paula Baumgartner …It took a while, but now the truth is that I have earned more writing than gardening professionally but have still earned more gardening than teaching philosophy or selling books of philosophy I have actually authored. Tremendous insights can be gained from many types of work if one takes a certain attitude towards the efforts. Paula and a number of the other women on the crew in 2002 also write and edit professionally in English. Strange, perhaps, but the truth. Others would just laugh and think ‘Of course the poor writer needs an additional source of income’ – ha ha, how funny to imagine otherwise…We have heard that JK Rowling has been such a poor writer and single Mum as to have been reduced to living out of her car and went on to achieve billionaire status by delighting generations with the Harry Potter stories…and during the past decade has been so rich she gave loads of money away to help others and she is still rich even though she did. Wow.

Hopefully, in 2013 I will have enough luck that I am able to do some author’s talks and book signings and sell some copies of the humble philosophy starter book Five Big Questions in Life and how to answer them. If you are intrigued and curious about philosophy but put off by tomes of knowledge this book is for you. Also, if you have entered college freshman philosophy and could use some supplemental help, this book is also for you. You can get yours now, right here:

When I was just a girl, I read avidly. To be truthful I did not care very much who the author was until or unless I liked a number of their stories. I was not against authors being paid and had actually jumped to the wrong conclusion that all novelists are well paid and that the profession is a good paying one.

Up to that point my main connection with other authors was having read their work or else having some kind of intuitive psychic natural connection to them that could be easily overlooked. When I first wrote a novel I intended to not go further afield to connect with other writers intending only to submit to publishers and agents and not worry about the others trying to work in the same field. What I am not mentioning is the reality that my boyfriend’s youngest brother lived in the same house and was also writing a novel during part of the same time. Their father was a professional writer and their mother was their father’s business partner and support staff as well as being their mother. This set of circumstances made writing a novel fit into the situation in a way that is more natural than it may have been for many. The older woman and I are both left handed which may not have any direct relevance but perhaps on some subtle psychological levels it does. Forgive me for saying so, but I viewed the younger brother as a good friend and pretty much like the younger brother I never had. I have both an older brother and an older sister. To this day I believe he is a good fellow and I like him very much and really. As for his older brother – I fell madly into love with that guy but sometimes we degenerated into a love/hate dynamic and ended up only spending about 5 years together, even though when he asked me to marry him it only took me 5 minutes to tell him ‘Yes’. Notice that I didn’t answer with No. Big difference, or so I thought at the time. They have another brother who I went to school with who is charming and attractive and now has 4 children one of whom is the age of my child. We knew one another but were not ever particularly close but had some of the same close friends or associates. Yet another brother-in-law. That guy is not a writer either as far as I know.

Over a decade later, such chaos occurred regarding that book that it has yet to be published and it was not until 16 years later that I wrote another book. I did that as a ghostwriter. This time, I tried here and there to connect with other professional writers. I was not honestly sure whether or not it would do any good for me to do so, but I liked interacting with real people more than I wanted to read books about the writing and publishing industry so in that sense it worked better. Since 2003 I have written more than 5 books but mostly I just ghostwrote part of something or it was a little short or something and I was paid some money, but not enough to make me financially independent or middle class or anything as I had naturally hoped.

Long about 2005 I began to find other writers in ways that were not contrived. They began to show up at a cafe that I had frequented since 1999. In 2006 I finally wrote another novel and edited it during 2007. It was nothing like the first one at all except that it was written in the English language. This is not even the same genre, but has made it out a little bit and has a publisher who swears they will get around to releasing it before I die of unnatural causes or old age.

Since 2006, I have also connected with other professional writers both in person and online. Off the top of my head, I managed to interact with Barb Shoup because she openly runs the Writers Center in Indianapolis and does not hide the fact that she is an author as well as a wife and a teacher. I met Mike Z Williamson at a Inconjunction XXX in Indianapolis because he was on a panel discussion that I attended because they were talking SF and I have been harboring hopes that I will manage to generate and make enough money to be financially supported by 3 to 6 SF novels, probably as 2 series, a plan that developed during the writing of the aforementioned very first novel which is now partially re-re-re-rewritten. Twice, the rewrites were devastated by computer hardware failures and at least once a beloved German ended up playing the accidental anti-Christ and wiped out my computer files. Once, the writing was interrupted when real life events began to take on an undesireable resemblance to the reality of the situation. Anyways, Mike was genuinely friendly and accessible as well as good looking and close to my age. He even introduced me to his kids and wife and has met my son in person….He is a more advanced SF published novelist. Jaqueline Lichtenburg has politely corrected me online about a few points and LJ Sellers and Nancy Holzner have interacted a little bit. Then there are a few others who are just beginning professional novelists like myself include Jesilea Ryan who’s first novel 4000 Miles has been released since I first met her online. I have not met all of these people in person. David Burkhead writes SF short fiction, if you read magazine SF. Sometimes I feel that it does help to interact with other professional writers but I am still not always even sure it does.

[looks flustered] Sorry all of you about last night – your yesterday if you are in North America. In truth, I hardly used the Internet at all compared to some days and then I became engrossed with other activities. I remembered when I went to bed, but decided to hold off on blogging again until the next day. I felt bad about it only because it gives me so much hope that you are reading this and that more than one of you are a fairly regular or very consistent reader.

What I can tell you is that I actually really worked on a Gezka & Kiel novel. This is easy in some ways and very challenging in other ways because in actual fact I wrote the first 2 drafts of this novel when I was 20 to 22 years old. I will now turn 45 in just 3 weeks and I am still needing to get these novels out. I attribute the majority of the delay to my communication problems – asking for help from funders, and to the devastation of my first big experience with cohabitation and marriage. That relationship being ruined destabilized my life terribly. What I can tell you is that all I did was manage to quit smoking cigarettes for a few days and all Hell began to break loose.

Today, my son is here. We are between Christmas and New Year’s. I have not completely learned how Germans open and close stores in relation to these holidays. Yesterday I went out thinking maybe they had reopened, but they had not. However, I know that they will be open some of the days between these holidays but don’t know. In truth, the obvious thing to do is either go out exploring and find out or knock on a neighbor’s door and ask and learn it. This is one of those situations where I feel a little awkward because even though that is clearly the correct answer, I probably will not even handle it that way.

Yesterday I did read in German, but it was literally a tiny children’s book about hedgehogs. I have learned more, and have devised a fairly practical self-education program. When I have learned enough of it, I will sign up to take the government’s test for a specific level. I have learned the TELC language level codes. Before 2011 or so, I did not know that.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day. Learning how and where to provide talks and book signings here in Germany to market the books should be both fun and challenging. English books for sale by American author who speaks conversational level German but isn’t really fluent. [strange smile, but not as bad as the one Wednesday Addams had to find after having been subjected to like 18 hours of Disney films in the Happy Hut for having been a downer to the other campers and staff at Summer Camp].

This post is not pre-planned. It is actually Christmas. The people who care are Christians and people who live in Christian nations who are culturally conditioned to celebrate Christmas.

This year I would like to share with you the same way I shared with my 17 year old. We know this is Jesus Christ’s official birthday. The real reason he was born in a manger is because his parents did not make reservations and the town they went to was packed for the Census. Given that Jesus was born, he may have been counted in the Census. In 2012, I believe a baby being born during the Census, especially if it is within 2 days of when the Census takers come around…back in 2010 the USA had another Census…it was that. He was born just in time to be counted.

As an aside note…another benefit of the simple fact that I read more of The Bible this past year….He and John the Baptist were cousins. The mothers spent a few months together during their pregnancies. It is just that until I read about that, I had been oblivious of the obvious connection.

According to scripture the method for showing Jesus your personal love is the same for all: practice the old Jewish 10 Commandments and then on top of all that, practice JC’s teachings. From the perspective of a mushy Pooh bear hugging young child that seems really abstract…It is a lot if someone says “If you love me obey the law.” It is OK, and I understand he meant it, and those who practice the teachings reap the benefits of doing so,…I assume over 1 billion people do a good job practicing Christianity daily and that leaves another billion Christians not doing as well but still making some effort to practice. Think about that in practical terms. When 2 billion people abide by a set of behavior standards daily it makes a difference. It is just planet Earth but every little drop in the bucket adds up to the oceanic effect, so to speak.